Triathlete Survives Serious Blood Clot

Triathlete Susan Bartholomew suddenly was having trouble breathing.

She ran, biked and swam regularly and appeared to be in great physical shape. Yet there she was last March at a medical clinic in Denver, trying to figure out what was wrong.

After numerous tests, it turned out she had a blood clot in her lung.

“It was the worst pain I’ve ever felt,” said the 29-year-old Bartholomew, one of the top U.S. women in her sport. “The clot could have moved to the brain or the heart, and been life-threatening.”

Several stays in the hospital slowed down Bartholomew but didn’t stop her. She has been in two triathlons since doctors discovered the blood clot, and this weekend she will compete in a third at the World Triathlon Championships.

The championships, over a scenic course in Montreal, consist of a nine-tenths of a mile swim in the Olympic Rowing Basin; a 24.8-mile bike ride over the Circuit Gilles-Villenueve, the Formula One Grand Prix course; and a 6.2-mile run over Ile Notre Dame, a man-made island just south of the city.

Bartholomew finished third at a U.S. triathlon series meet in Minneapolis in July, then won a North American championship meet in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., last month. She’s now looking ahead to the 2000 Olympics, the first time the triathlon will be contested at the games.

“When I was first told I had the clot, I thought, ‘There goes my triathlon career,’ ” Bartholomew said. “Now, I feel very confident.”

That wasn’t the case when she first felt the pain in her chest.

Bartholomew’s X-rays at the Denver clinic showed only a muscle strain. She was given muscle relaxants and sent home.

When the pain persisted, she returned, saw another doctor and was told the same thing. Again, she went home. That night, she couldn’t sleep.

“I almost collapsed,” she said. “The pain was excruciating.”

At that point, her fiance, Tim Williams, rushed her to the emergency room at Swedish Hospital. After a series of tests, including a lung scan and an injection of radioactive dye, she was told she had a blood clot.

She ended up spending a total of about two weeks at St. Joseph’s Hospital, where she had been transferred. Doctors still are puzzled by what caused the clot; she will return for more tests Tuesday.

Bartholomew had been taking medication, including blood thinners, after she was released from the hospital.

“Some medicines were making me sick,” Bartholomew said. “I had no energy. I was always very tired.”

She needed two more weeks to gradually rebuild her strength, then doctors warned her to avoid certain activities “because a fall could be fatal.” That meant hard bike riding was out.

“I did mostly running and swimming and rode my training bike,” she said. “I took some easy bike rides by myself where there was no traffic.”

Of the three triathlon events, swimming is Bartholomew’s strongest. She set the national junior record for the 200-meter butterfly in 1984 and was a standout at Alabama.

Bartholomew was the world’s 22nd-ranked triathlete before her illness. During her four-month recuperation period, she slipped to 33rd. Now, she is back to 25th and looking forward to trying to make the U.S. team for the Sydney Games.

In order to make the three-woman team, she must be the first American at the Sydney World Cup meet over the Olympic course on April 16 or be among the top two at the U.S. Olympic trials in Dallas on May 28.

The Olympic course will be very picturesque.

“We intend to highlight the features of Sydney which are known to everyone in the world,” said Les McDonald, International Triathlon Union president. “We’ll swim in the harbor, cycle past the Opera House and run past the Botanical Gardens and finish in front of the Opera House.”

Three other Americans are world-ranked ahead of Bartholomew: Barb Lindquist of Jackson Hole, Wyo., fifth; Jennifer Guiterrez of Denver, 12th; and Siri Lindley of Boulder, Colo., 13th.

“The competition for the Olympic spots will be fierce,” Bartholomew said. “It depends on who’s ‘on’ that day. I was ‘on’ in Wilkes-Barre.”

Bartholomew has other big plans, too.

She’s getting married on Nov. 27 and wants to attempt an Ironman triathlon after Sydney, then have a family and become an astronaut.

She earned a B.S. in aerospace engineering from Alabama in 1992 and an M.S. in the same subject from Colorado in 1994.

“I won’t have any flying experience,” she said, “but I hope to go as a mission specialist. Ever since I was young, it was a goal of mine to be an astronaut. I was always fascinated with space.

“Now, more and more women are being accepted into the astronaut program.”